Carlsbad’s General Plan (GP)
Carlsbad’s Habitat Management Plan (HMP)
Carlsbad’s Climate Action Plan (CAP)
Carlsbad’s Trails Master Plan (TMP)
Carlsbad’s General Plan:
The GP is revised about every 10 years. The current revision cuts back on the long-term commitment of 40% open space. Even 2-3% less could mean a loss of 500-750 acres of open space. Our major concern is that the promise of 40% open space (going back to 1986) has been completely ignored in the new GP. In addition, the General Plan and the draft Environmental Impact Report fail to mention the required performance standard of 15% open space space for each of the 25 Local Facility Management Zones. Green space should be a focus of the General Plan, not an afterthought following the additional of thousands of residences, 7 million square feet of new commercial space, and 2600 more hotel rooms.
Parks, too, have been ignored in the General Plan, in particular neighborhood parks which residents can actually walk to. More information follows for each of the city quadrants. Good news, as of spring 2017 the NW quadrant will now get a 3.1 acre neighborhood park at the site of the old Buena Vista Reservoir. This came about as a result of a city settlement with North County Advocates and other local conservation groups including Preserve Calavera.
Don’t know your quadrant? See the map below:
The map shows you existing and proposed parks, however, the numbers for park acreage don’t seem to add up. With a growing population and an increase in tourists who also use our parks the proposed increase seems inadequate. In Carlsbad, park acreage calculations are based upon the 4 quadrants (divided east-west by El Camino Real and north-south by Palomar Airport Road). To view the data for your quadrant, click on the links below:
- NW quadrant data p.1; NW quadrant data; NW presentation
- NE quadrant data; NE presentation
- SW quadrant data; SE+ SW presentation
- SE quadrant data
To read the General Plan either visit the City of Carlsbad’s website or go to our link if their website is down.
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Carlsbad’s Habitat Management Plan (HMP)
Carlsbad is the only north county city to have an HMP, created in 1999 and receiving final approval by the city in 2004. Their latest annual report can be found here.
Visit the Open Space page to get more information on how well the city is doing on reaching their goal of 40% natural open space and 15% open space within each of the 25 local facility management zones (LFMZ).
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Carlsbad’s Climate Action Plan (CAP)
Carlsbad’s CAP, approved in Sept. 2015, is designed to meet state-mandated goals in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. An administrator was hired in June 2016. Within the plans are inventories for citywide and local government GHG emissions, forecasts for future emissions and action plans to reduce GHG emissions through 2035. Included in the CAP are monitoring and reporting processes to ensure targets are met.
Missing from the CAP is a component to consider Community Choice Energy (CCE) as a significant measure to reduce GHG emissions. CCE is a not-for-profit alternative to SDG&E that cities across the state have been using to help meet their emission targets. Regionally, cities have been meeting to discuss the possibility of creating their own CCE. Cities (Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside) are now considering whether to move forward by funding an implementation plan. Carlsbad elected to include, as part of their Sustainability section, a willingness to consider a regional CCE. For more information on what’s happening locally on CCE visit: www.ccenorthcoastal.org
Carlsbad’s Trail Master Plan (TMP)
Carlsbad’s TMP has been in the works for quite some time. The draft was released in 2015 and after the EIR and response to public comments is now available for public review.
Many of the public are hoping that the trails plan will include trails along the south side of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, known as Hub Park. In 2016 a citizen group proposed a plan for the area which we hope will be soon included as part of the TMP.
